A journalist has claimed that BioWare is going back to the original Mass Effect trilogy’s structure with the series’ next instalment.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is the game that has BioWare’s full attention right now, but once the fantasy RPG is out (which might be as late as late 2024), the studio will turn its focus to the next instalment in the Mass Effect franchise. The sci-fi RPG is currently in pre-production, which means there’s plenty about it that we don’t know yet, but it seems some crucial details may have filtered through nonetheless.

Speaking recently on the Xbox Two podcast, Windows Central journalist Jez Corden claimed that the next Mass Effect game could be ditching the open world formula that was introduced in 2017’s Mass Effect: Andromeda, and instead once again adopt the more linear structure of the original Mass Effect trilogy.

“I’ve heard that Mass Effect is ditching open world and going back to its classic formula,” Corden said. “I don’t know if 100% accurate, but it’s an industry rumour.”

Of course, as mentioned previously, the game is still in pre-production, which means there’s a good chance that there’s plenty about the experience that even BioWare will not yet have nailed down, so whether or not it ends up being open world might not be something that’s necessarily concretely decided yet.

Even so, given the fact that Mass Effect: Andromeda received a great deal of criticism for its implementation of open world design (among several other things), it wouldn’t be surprising to see BioWare reverting to what the series has traditionally been known for (and been good at).

Other than the fact that it’ll be built on Unreal Engine 5, details on the next Mass Effect game are currently scant, though some potential hints can be gleaned by a poster and a mysterious teaser that BioWare has released in the past.